Not a barbarian warrior.

Previously, Lorena had confided in Eugene.

That she wasn’t as great a magician as Eugene thought.

Eugene wasn’t much different either.

When he was Kim Woo-jin, he was a hikikomori, and now he was a despised barbarian.

He wasn’t well-versed in the law, nor was he a sage. But there was one thing he knew.

“It’s not your fault.”

He said it again. He could say it as many times as needed.

“Lorena, it’s not your fault.”

“…”

The hand holding her staff trembled slightly.

She gripped the staff tightly, trying not to let go.

With her mouth closed, she slowly shook her head and said:

“…No, no. Eugene, this… is my fault…”

“No one can say you’re at fault. Not even yourself.”

Lorena vehemently denied that her younger self was innocent.

“No…! No… Ou-Our mom could have lived! If, if I had run out and sought help… No, if I had escaped with mom outside the village before that…!”

Confessing that she was guilty, she tore her own heart to shreds.

The pain in her chest was so sharp that Lorena cried from it.

Even as her body trembled, even as she breathed roughly, she didn’t stop.

“Mo-Mom had so many chances to live… I was stupid and weak, so I kicked away all those chances… So it’s true that I killed mom-”

“No…! You were just a ten-year-old child then…!”

Eugene protested against her trying to see herself as the perpetrator of her mother’s death.

“You did the best you could. You somehow survived under a father who would get drunk and use his fists every night.”

“What happened to your mother was because of your father, never your fault. So please…”

Eugene hoped she wouldn’t hate her powerless younger self.

“Don’t hate yourself who is innocent of any crime. Don’t try to kill your younger self. That’s… that’s too cruel.”

The only one who could forgive the ten-year-old Lorena, who could only cower beside her dying mother, was Lorena herself.

Lorena’s eyes shook greatly for a moment.

After repeatedly opening and closing her lips, she tried to give Eugene a reason:

“But… I… I have to erase this memory… Otherwise… Do you mean I should live like this, stammering for the rest of my life…?”

“You know that’s not what I mean… Lorena, let’s find another way. This isn’t right…”

“I… I…”

This was as far as Eugene could go.

From here on, it was up to her choice.

“Why… why did you do this… I just wanted to be at peace… Because of Eugene, now I don’t know… Wha-What I should do…”

She looked at her younger self.

She hated her.

She hated her powerless and stupid self so much that she wanted to erase everything as if it had never happened.

She was grateful.

Because she had stubbornly endured even in this terrible situation, her current self was able to live.

As these conflicting emotions clashed, her heart slowly began to break.

Lorena slowly approached her younger self.

She looked closely at herself crouching with her head down.

A child crouching in fear.

A child who was crying out for help, tightly clenching her small, fragile fingers.

She stood there blankly for a long time like that.

As her breathing became rougher, she bit her lip.

Even though her vision blurred, she didn’t look away.

After a long deliberation, the scale in her heart slowly tipped to one side.

Lorena let go of the hand holding the staff.

She hugged her younger self who was crouching.

With her eyes closed, she spoke in a trembling voice.

“I, I should do it… I have to do it… But… I can’t… I don’t want to erase this memory… Be-Because my younger self is too pitiful…”

Tightly hugging the small, stiff shoulders of the child, Lorena sobbed like that.

Not all of her long-held guilt had disappeared.

But the sympathy for herself that she had tried hard to hide and ignore raised its head again.

It wasn’t everything, but she decided to forgive herself a little.

That was the moment.

Crack-

A small crack appeared centered on Lorena, then gradually spread in all directions.

Crash-!

With a sound like glass shattering, the world began to break.

Starting from the sky beyond the horizon, black emptiness revealed itself in the places that cracked.

The collapse gradually accelerated, soon invading even the space where Eugene and Lorena were.

The log cabin where her family had lived, her family members, and young Lorena all shattered into dust.

Thus, Lorena’s magic ended in failure.

After the world created based on her memories completely disappeared, the two woke up inside the mansion.

Lorena, who had been lying on the magic circle, slowly got up and trudged away.

She quietly entered her room and locked the door.

“Lorena…”

Everyone makes mistakes. Some of them remain in the heart, never forgiven.

Eugene knew well how painful and agonizing the guilt born from that was.

That’s why he hoped Lorena would completely forgive herself. He wished she wouldn’t suffer anymore.

Hoping that she would pull herself together and stand up again, Eugene got up and opened the windows of the mansion.

The pitch-black night had already disappeared, and the sun was rising in the distance.

“…Again! I told you not to raise your heel too high! I’m adding a hundred more.”

“Huu… Understood!”

As Bernard shouted, Eugene refocused his mind and swung his sword.

Several days had passed since Lorena’s magic failed.

As always, Eugene had come out from early dawn to receive Sir Bernard’s guidance and swing his sword.

“Again! Your mind is elsewhere. Concentrate. I’m adding a hundred more.”

For the past few days, his swordsmanship showed no signs of improvement, rather it seemed to be regressing.

Bernard didn’t pry into whether Eugene had any circumstances.

Instead, he only increased the intensity of the training even more.

This was his own way of caring. To make him bury his complicated thoughts and troubled mind along with the sword.

The other trainees, unaware of his intentions, trembled just watching Eugene.

They looked pitifully at Eugene, who was drenched in sweat and repeatedly swinging his sword.

“…How does it compare to the hell training we did for physical conditioning?”

“…Isn’t it similar? No, that might be even more painful…”

“And he’s been doing this every day from dawn until sunset?”

“He’s tough, really tough… As expected of a barbarian warrior.”

Until the sun that had risen set and twilight fell, Eugene ultimately couldn’t complete the number of repetitions.

“Stop. Let’s end it here for today.”

“Huff… Huff… Thank you.”

Eugene dragged his exhausted body back to Lorena’s mansion.

The inside of the mansion was quiet as if no one was there.

Passing through the corridor, Eugene looked at the plate he had left in front of her room.

The soup and bread in the plate were cold, untouched.

“Lorena.”

There was no answer from inside the door to Eugene’s call.

He was worried since she had been locked up in her room without eating anything for several days already.

‘At least she’s been drinking water…’

He quietly cleared away the plate, thinking he might have to break down the door soon to get her out.

Another day passed like that.

The next day, Eugene headed to Lorena’s room as soon as he woke up.

As always, he knocked lightly on the door, but there was no response from inside.

Just as he was about to turn away in disappointment.

Click-

The locked door opened, and Lorena finally appeared.

She looked haggard, even more than when he first met her at the inn.

Her hair was disheveled, and her eyes were hollow behind her dusty glasses.

The dark circles under her eyes were prominent, and her cheeks were sunken.

It was because she hadn’t eaten anything for days and hadn’t slept properly.

Before Lorena could part her lips to say anything, Eugene picked her up and sat her down at the table.

A moment later, a bowl of steaming soup was placed in front of her.

Lorena slowly picked up the spoon and tasted the soup, gradually eating faster.

After emptying the bowl without leaving anything, Eugene put something down on the table.

“Here, dessert is served.”

It was an appetizingly baked apple pie.

She picked up a knife and carefully cut the pie.

A familiar and nostalgic sweet aroma spread out.

As if startled by this, she turned her head to look at Eugene.

“I’m not sure if it turned out well. Try it and let me know.”

After chewing on a piece of pie for a while, her eyes gradually became wet.

“How is it?”

After thoroughly chewing and swallowing the pie, Lorena opened her mouth to Eugene’s question.

“…It’s, it’s the seventh most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten…”

“I’m glad.”

While Eugene smiled, she ate the pie quietly for a while and then lowered her head.

“I, I think it was good that I didn’t erase my memories after all…”

Lorena was still stammering.

A scar once engraved wasn’t so easily erased.

She slowly fingered the spoon.

“Bu-But I’m worried… Can I… can I be okay even without erasing my memories…?”

“Don’t worry. There must be another good way.”

“…Okay.”

Lorena quietly ate the last piece of pie and stood up from her seat.

She approached Eugene who was next to her, hugged him tightly, and whispered softly.

“…Thank you.”

Lorena’s warm warmth was transmitted to Eugene.

For a while, they stood still like that.